The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Containers are used for storing many articles and contents. For example, a cooler is often used at social gatherings and celebratory events to store and cool refreshments and/or perishable foods that are consumed by guests. Often, multiple coolers are set out for guests to access the beverage of their choice, such as soda, fruit drinks, water, and alcoholic beverages. Other coolers may be used to store perishable food items prior to their consumption or have been used to store medical equipment, supplies, and even transplant organs.
To eliminate the need for someone to open a cooler to determine its contents, it is a common practice to adhesively attach a label to the outside. For example, a portion of the product packaging label can be cut to identify the branded product name and/or product logo. Other labels can be printed or hand written. Such labels can be taped to an outer surface of the cooler. This type of practice is illustrated in FIG. 1. A picnic cooler 100 includes a cover 102 and a base 104. A contents label 105 can be a hand printed label or a portion of the product packaging material that is taped to cover 102 of the cooler 100. The label 105 can be taped to cooler cover 102 with several segments of duct tape 108. The cooler base 104 having a storage compartment for holding contents and an orifice for receiving the contents into the storage compartment Handles 110 are typically located on the sides cooler base 104 (one handle not shown). The label 105 selected for taping to the cooler cover 102 can be the product name and/or product logo for the product stored within the cooler. An engaging mechanism 112 is shown for flexibly coupling the cooler cover 102 to the cooler base 104.
It is existing practice that one cooler is used to store regular sodas, a second cooler to store lower calorie diet sodas, a third for regular beers, a fourth for lower or light calorie beers, and a fifth cooler for non-alcoholic fruit drinks. Each cooler may then be marked with its own taped display label identifying its contents. Alternatively, labeling for the cooler may consist of writing the name of the owner and/or stored product on cardboard-like material with a marker pen, again duct taping the material to a surface. Alternatively, writing the labeling information directly on the surface using a marker pen can also serve to identify its contents and/or owner.
The use of tape (such as duct tape) to attach a contents label to a cooler can require cleaning the exterior surface of the cooler after use, as once the label and tape are removed, a sticky residue may remain on the cooler surface. This may require the use of cleaning chemicals to adequately clean the cooler surface and subsequent disposal of the cleaning solution. Additionally, waste disposal is also required for the removed duct tape and the used display label. Cleaning chemicals may also be required to remove marker pen residue from cooler surfaces when surfaces are directly labeled with an erasable marker pen.